Outside's Go Magazine - Travel and Style for Men

Sweet Grenadines

Three old sailing buddies brave four-star golf, a shipload of bashful coeds, and perpetual Caribbean repose on a weeklong cruise in the Grenadines

By Bucky McMahon
Photographs by Jorg Badura

"Sailing and flying are the same thing — with two exceptions," Will Barclay says, giving the main sheet a few more cranks with the winch, squinting upward at the dancing telltales. "Sailing is more complicated; flying happens faster. In a sailboat you're dealing with four foils — main and genoa, tiller and keel — in two media: air and water."

Erik Dyce, steering the 49-foot Inspiration with an insouciance that belies those complications, toasts the higher truth of his old pal's aphorism with a tink of their beers and a wink to Jake Schroeder, the neophyte sailor of the trio and the object of Barclay's discourse. Hear! Hear! To sailing, and flying, and friendship!

It's the second day of a five-day cruise, and the three friends — flying buddies, among other affinities — are northbound from Union Island to the Tobago Cays, a national marine park and one of the most beloved anchorages in the Grenadines. ETA is midafternoon, meaning plenty of time before cocktail hour. Meanwhile, under severe clear skies — pilotese for a perfect day — the amigos hunker down in the cockpit under the bimini's shade to reminisce. Flying stories, mostly: ice on the wings, violent wind shear, precipitous drops. In contrast to such tales of gravitas, and gravity, the Inspiration sways to and fro as gently as a porch swing. Terror recollected in tranquillity. Sweet.

Like Will says, in sailboats the magic number is 50 feet. In a smaller boat, say a 30-footer, these pipsqueak seas would be knocking the crap out of them. "On a 50-footer," he says, " you can set down a champagne glass on the nav table and not spill a drop."

"Do we have any champagne?" Erik asks.

The three friends look at each other and laugh. Did we pull this off, or what?

It hadn't been easy to halt the mad onrush of life with the parenthesis of a cruise. The Who said it best: "Let's get together before we get much older." And Erik and Will are both staring down the barrel at 50. For that matter, Erik considers himself lucky to be alive. Five years ago, Erik was a Type A heart attack waiting to happen. With the connivance of Erik's wife, Jodi, Will staged a one-man intervention.

So maybe this jaunt in the Grenadines is partial payback, a little something on the installment plan. And the boat, a sloop-rigged monohull Bavaria, a true cruiser with a couple of Atlantic crossings logged, was chosen with veteran sailor Will in mind. As for the itinerary — Grenada to Bequia and back, with a rest stop at the world-class Raffles Resort on Canouan — it was designed for maximum fun and minimum stress. Remote, pristine waters, and luxury to boot.